Medical students, private healthcare staff and GPs should all be given the right to strike under Labour’s workers’ rights charter, the militant doctors’ union has urged ministers, raising fears that patients will lose out.
The British Medical Association (BMA) also called for legalisation that would allow strikes to spread across more hospitals and clinics.
And it wants NHS workers to be allowed to stage walkouts in emergencies without holding a ballot first.
Its demands have raised fresh concerns over the impact of Labour’s flagship Employment Rights Bill, which repeals a series of Conservative restrictions on trade unions and hands workers more generous terms from day one in their jobs.
The Government’s own impact assessment has admitted the existing proposals will cost firms £5billion a year, while small businesses say it will deter them from hiring.
This prompted Kemi Badenoch this week to tell Sir Keir Starmer he should drop what she dubbed his ‘unemployment bill’.
Last night shadow health secretary Edward Argar told the Mail: ‘As well as destroying jobs and wrecking business confidence, our public services will also pay the price of Labour’s willingness to give in to their trades union allies, and of their damaging Employment Bill.
Pictured here is a GP checking a patient’s blood pressure. The British Medical Association has urged ministers to give medical students, private healthcare staff and GPs the right to strike
Junior doctors take part in a rally outside Downing Street as members of the British Medical Association walk out for five days in a strike action over pay — June 27, 2024
‘The Labour Government must step up, ensure the NHS cannot be held to ransom, and put patients first.’
The NHS in England has been crippled by strikes in recent years which has added to record waiting lists.
Last summer junior doctors staged 44 days of disruption before Health Secretary Wes Streeting offered them a 22 per cent pay rise.
BMA council deputy chairman Dr Emma Runswick said: ‘Improving doctors’ pay and working conditions is vital for retaining them.
‘If we lose more doctors, waits will continue to be unacceptably long and patients’ experience will continue to deteriorate.’
A DBT spokesperson said: ‘Our Employment Rights Bill will bring trade union legislation into the 21st century by stripping back layers of burdensome and inefficient red tape that has prevented unions from being able to represent and negotiate on behalf of their workers.
‘We consulted on several measures late last year to create a modern framework for our industrial relations, and will publish a Government response shortly.’
